Robert Horton’s role as the intrepid scout,
Flint McCullough, on “Wagon Train” is probably his most well
remembered, and loved, role. That he made this character so real
for us is a tribute to his ability, determination and thoroughness
as an actor. One of the first things Mr. Horton did upon getting
the role was to drive across the country from Missouri to
California, to follow as closely as was possible the actual route
taken by the pioneers on the wagon trains. He also wrote a
“biography” for Flint, to keep the character consistent for
all the various script writers and directors, and he has been kind
enough to share that biography with us. The following background
for “Flint,” was in Mr. Horton’s own words, “Based on
the 'Jean LeBec Story,' and what I have said, or has been said
about me so far in the series. It is historically accurate, and,
if now and then improbable, still within the range of
possibility.”

Flint McCullough Biography

By Robert Horton

Flint was born in 1839 in Virginia, the son
of a middle class family. His mother was a native of Virginia, his
father an immigrant from Scotland who earned his living as a
teacher at Virginia’s College of William and Mary.

By selecting the teaching profession as his
father’s occupation, and by choosing Virginia as his mother’s
home, I feel that both a certain grace in his everyday living
habits can (easily) be explained, as the old South was certainly
the home of graciousness in early America, and also his early
contact with education would not be too difficult to understand.

In 1850 his family moved from Virginia and
headed west for Salt Lake City. I chose this year, as this was the
year the University of Utah was founded. This would give a logical
reason for the move from the father’s standpoint economically,
and if you chose to have him interested or converted to the Mormon
faith you would only double the motivation. This would also give
young “Flint,” now eleven, his first contact with the problems
of crossing the plains, acquaint him with the Oregon Trail as far
as the South Pass, and then through the pass to Fort Bridger, and
on to Salt Lake. As you know, this route was the route of the
Donner Party, the Mormons, and a great majority of those pushing
on to California.

While at Fort Bridger, where the wagon trains
were accustomed to stopping for repairs and supplies, “Flint”
meets Jim Bridger. By 1850 Bridger was already a legend and had
been spoken of most generously in Fremont’s book, published in
1842, “Reports on Expeditions Exploring the Rocky Mountains.”
It stands to reason that a person who could read and who planned
to make the trek west would certainly have read this book sometime
within the eight years after it was published, especially in an
academic environment. Therefore, Flint knows about Bridger, and
can have a kind of hero worship for the scout, and Bridger, who
took up the study of Shakespeare when he was in his later years,
could be flattered and more than casually interested in a young
boy who could read, and had read about him. This friendship can be
developed in imagination, as Bridger often went through Salt Lake
City.

In the winter of 1852 the Mormons had a
particularly bad cold season, and during this winter, in my story,
I choose to have Flint’s father pass away with pneumonia. This I
feel would aid in Flint’s maturation, as now he, in essence,
would be the head of the family. This would also serve in
motivating an even closer relationship between him and Jim
Bridger, the later becoming a kind of father. This relationship
now opens up and explains Flint’s understanding of Indians. The
Mormon people were on friendly terms with the Ute tribe, and this
tribe spoke a dialect of the Siouan language, one of the great
linguistic families of the North American Indians, engulfing
nearly all the tribes who lived between the Mississippi River and
the Rocky Mountains. Add to this the fact that Bridger had two
wives, both squaws, picturesquely named, Blast Your Hide, a
Cheyenne, and Dang Your Eyes, an Arapahoe, and you further explain
Flint’s understanding and acceptance of Indians and their
customs, and as he was Jim Bridger’s friend, the Indians
accepted him. Bridger was celebrated across the frontier as a
scout, trapper, hunter, and fur trader, and by linking Flint’s
life with his, from 1850 through 1857, the how in my
characterization of Flint can be gradually explained.

To continue, in 1855 Bridger returned East,
and ultimately was hired as a scout by General Albert Sydney
Johnston. In my story Flint goes with him, crosses the plains for
the second time, and with the advent of the Civil War why
shouldn’t Flint cast his lot with the South. After all, his
mother was from Virginia.

At the end of the Civil War, with the South in
ruin, Flint returns to the thing he knows best: the frontier. The
last I heard of him, he was scouting for Major Seth Adams.